Alejandro Moreno
Harry Conley
A&L 1010-10
December 18, 2018
Civil Action Plan
Littering is one of the biggest problems that surround an urban setting, and our city isn’t an exception. Often times, individuals are oblivious to the underlying issue of littering. Of how a single gum wrapper contribute to a greater issue that piles up and threats our mental state and health. Having an efficient method of teaching people of the effects of littering is crucial in order of them to understand. To see the bigger picture, so that they know that the smallest piece can cause devastating effects on the human health and mental state.
Our plan of educating the CSULA campus is pretty simple but also extremely effective. By using posters and placing them around the campus we hope that seeing the effects and reading about them will spark an interest to put words into action. Sadly, according to Ben Poston of LA Times, he states “More than 370 miles of roads and alleys in L.A. — or 4% of all city blocks — were found to be so dirty that they require immediate cleanup, according to the rating system released by the city Friday.”(2016) As alarming as this is, it’s all preventable as long as people have the education and the plans to make change happen. Subsequently, this amount of trash also affects our state of mind; as stated by Shaunacy Ferro on Mental Floss; “An idea called attention restoration theory, first introduced in 1989, says that looking at natural scenery boosts concentration and decreases stress by providing a break from the constant psychological stimulation of urban environments, where there’s always something the brain wants to pay attention to.”(2015). This demonstrates that people to see a clean environment in order to maintain their stress levels at bay. Especially in a college setting, this is important because college students are already stressed as it is. So the problem of littering is only making things worse for people. There’s no denying that social media influences our daily lives one way or another. And making a statement there naturally brings people’s attention; which is what we need in order to show others that littering is something that we can fix. The people involved will hopefully be our own students as it’s their campus and there's pride that comes from having a stellar campus. By having our own students help keep their campus clean, this will then hopefully carry out into their daily lives. By force of habit, one can then help keep their community clean as one does with their own college campus. As well as by implementing a sort of coupon system in which students who participate can redeem certain snacks at the campus store. Which will then give people more of an incentive to pick up after themselves. While at the same time get something in return, which favors us to keep the cycle going. Furthermore by hosting events on the campus, sticking out on the walkway will be easy and catching people’s attention will be even easier. Hopefully this can take place around April, making it centered around Earth Day. People always pay attention to certain topics if they're attached with a holiday of sorts. This event can last a couple of hours as many people walk through the main walkway so staying there for maybe one or two ours will bring a lot of people over. Most likely some sort of handouts or posters will help with spreading information.
For this plan to work, we will need as many people as we can. This campus is pretty big in terms of locations and by having a lot of people expanding to other communities wouldn't seem too hard. A couple hundred seems to be the minimal amount, but people follow so the power that one person has is huge. No training would be needed as it’s just picking up after oneself and to prevent littering in the first place. In terms of training, the closest thing you’d need for that is the education about the effects of littering. I believe that one would probably need 20 min to make all the posters and about another 20 to set up the station at the main walkway. Then about 2 hours for the walkway to educate people. For the cost the only thing that will cost any money would be the actual posters themselves. So about 10 dollars sounds realistic enough for poster papers. The physical location would be the main walkway but for the posters it could be around the school so a specific location isn't exactly needed. The program can definitely grow and even turn into a club or a program. That spreads awareness of what littering is and how one can help diminish it. This project is definitely sustainable because money isn’t something that is exclusively needed. As long as there’s people to spread the message, the project stays relevant.
I think the best person to start this course of action is someone in my civil action group, as we are very passionate on the topic at hand. Having the knowledge already needed and the call to action. At this day in age, almost everyone on the campus cares about environmental issues. Sorina Mendez, a fellow CSULA student stated “The environmental problems we are struggling with today are thanks to all the generations before us. We have to carry the burden of it, but now, without a doubt, it’s our turn to help and fix the state of the environment”. This shows the importance our generation has on the future of this world which sounds redundant, however it’s a point one cannot stress enough. This solution should last as long as the people are there picking after themselves, so pinning an actual time would be a bit difficult as it’s something one can’t really state with certainty. Knowing that people are a bit more aware of the situations going on around them, as long as littering is an issue. People will be there to call upon those who decide to do it. With this I’m sure that the CSULA campus will become more conscious about what they do to the environment, as well as help spread the message we are trying to get out there. CSULA will become an environmentally conscious campus with a campaign to stop littering.
If this project isn’t implemented we face the risk of people living in ignorance and make the problem worse. In our modern day world around fake news, facts have now become a goldmine worth putting on the spotlight. Knowledge in this topic is extremely important and this topic has been ignored for far too long. So long in fact that now we are facing the consequences thanks to the people who ignore what a piece of trash is capable of.
Resources
Poston, Ben. “New L.A. Street Database to Guide Cleanup Efforts.” Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 8 Apr. 2016, www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-clean-streets-20160409-story.html.
Ferro, S. (2015, August 23). Beach Trash Is Ruining Your Mental Health. Retrieved December 18, 2018, from http://mentalfloss.com/article/67663/beach-trash-ruining-your-mental-health
(S.Mendez, personal communication, December 18,2018)